The Outcast and the Werewolf
by tiger4life
Summary: Katie is a girl that only wanted to be loved. But what happens when she finds it? Can she handle all the drama that comes with it or will she run away from it all? The first chapter is really, really short, but keep on reading, the others are longer.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

I had to get away from him. if I stayed I knew it would end up like it did before. It always does.

I couldn't go back home to pack anything. I knew that my family would just say that I'm being stupid and force me to stay. And I could not stay. I had enough money in my bank account to buy the necessities, but that was pretty much all I could get. I'm not broke or anything like that, I just needed to save up my money for gas and a place to stay. But I couldn't live off of 1,075 dollars for the rest of my life. I would have to get a job wherever I'm going.

But I didn't care. I would sleep in my used Toyota if I had to. I just had to get away.

--

**A/N - Sorry that it's a little short. The next one is longer. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

I walked through the high school doors, dreading this day.

"Still coming to school, Kate? I thought that you'd be too scared to come," a guy I didn't even know said to me as I walked by.

I turned away, blushing. I've been at school for less than 5 minutes and it already started.

But he was right. I didn't want to come to school today. I practically begged my parents to not let me go. they said that I had to deal with this and promised that it would all blow over soon. But I knew they were saying this just to keep me content.

I staled as long as I could: dressing, then re-dressing, eating my cereal as slow as possible, I even made my bed (which is something I rarely do) and by that point, my mom knew what I was doing. I followed her, unwillingly, into the minivan. I sat in the front seat quietly. I was an only child, but my mom, wanting a big family, still got a minivan instead of an SUV. So I sat there, in our over-sized minivan, hoping for a traffic jam, an accident, or to actually get into an accident.

But no luck there. My mom actually got me to school earlier than usual.

So there I was, walking down the hallway, trying to make it to my locker without anyone else noticing me.

Fortunately, no one did. Unfortunately, Morgan Roberts was waiting for me.

"Well, well, look who finally decided to show up," she said.

As hard as it might be to believe, Morgan was once my friend, best friend, actually. But ever since it happened a year ago, she wouldn't' talk to me. And about 2 months ago, she started ganging up on me like everyone else. Now, she was the worst one.

"What do you want?" I said irritably. I knew she would try and humiliate me.

"I was just coming over here to ask you about last night's homework," she said innocently, "but, seeing how rude you're being, I think I'll just ask someone else." And with that, she walked away.

I didn't believe her. She would never talk to me unless it was something that would embarrass me. I tried to come up with ideas that she would be planning as I put in my combination on my lock. She could be planning something at lunch. Or maybe Chemistry. But what?

I opened my locker and got my math book out of my back pack. I looked up at my locker, putting my book in, but dropped the book and screamed. there were at least 100 worms in it.

Everybody turned to me and started cracking up. Then I heard Morgan's voice.

"Oh my God! I can't believe you fell for it! you are so gullible!" she said as she was laughing.

Now it made sense. Morgan always knew that I detested worms. She must have put them in there just to gross me out and humiliate me.

I slammed my locker shut and ran to the janitor's office. I could always trust him. he helped me clean up whatever people had done to me and didn't ask too many questions about who did it and why.

I knocked on his door as loud as I could.

"Stan! Are you in there?' I yelled as I was knocking.

Then the door opened. A man in his fifties was standing there in his blue jumpsuit. He was tall, with a full set of gray hair, and had a beer belly.

"What happened now, Katie?" he said in his rough voice.

"Worms. Hundreds of them. In my locker," I stuttered.

He chuckled a little, but then stopped. I didn't get mad at him for it. He was laughing at the worms, not at me. He never laughed at me. that's what I liked about him.

"Now, don't worry,' he said in a calm voice, "We'll get them out."

He went back inside his office and got a bucket and some gloves. We went back to my locker and cleaned it out. Well, he cleaned it out. I just stood there, holding the bucket, trying not to puck.

"Well, I hink I got them all," he said, taking off his gloves. "Now you get to class and I'll take care of these." He grabbed the bucket from my hands.

"Thanks again, Stan," I said, getting the books I need from my locker.

"Don't mention it," he said, "But you're not going to tell me who did this, are you? I'm getting sick of them picking on you like this."

"Thanks for being concerned," I said, "but there would be a lot more worms if I told you."

'Well, okay," he said, grumpily, "but I still don't like it."

I chuckled. "I'll be fine," I said as I walked to class. "See ya."

"Take care, now."

I had Mrs. Winston for 1st hour English. She glowered at me when I came in, but didn't count me tardy. Today, we were going over some basic background on Shakespeare. I already knew this stuff from reading his books and from last year, so I just decided to doodle on a piece of paper.

I was so lost in my doodle, I barely heard the bell ring at the end of class. I packed up my stuff and went out the door.

"Hey, Katie! Wait up!" someone called.

Oh no. Usually people don't start bugging me until lunch. But today was a special occasion.

I turned around. it was Greg Binds from my English class.

I stopped, waiting for him to catch up. He was normal height for his age with black hair and bright blue eyes. He was muscular, too. He played on Varsity for the school's basketball's team.

'Hey," he said in his soft voice, "I'm sorry for what Morgan did this morning. She can get out of hands sometimes."

I just stood there, staring at him. Why would a popular, good-looking jock talk to me, the school's outcast?

"So,' he said, waiting for me to talk, "I guess I'll see you around."

I found my voice.

"Wait, why are you talking to me?" I asked him, dazed and confused.

He smiled. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he said.

"Thanks," I said, blushing, "but I'm fine." I turned to walk away, but he followed me.

"Well, I'm not totally convinced, so why don't you eat lunch with me and you can tell me how you really are?" he asked.

By now, I'm pretty sure that my whole face was red. "Um, sure, okay," I mumbled.

"Great," he said, smiling, "I'll see you then."

He turned around and walked away.

I stood there, stunned. Had I just been asked out? And not even by some geek, but by a popular guy? I couldn't believe it.

It was a miracle that I could get to my class unscathed. I didn't really know where I was going, but when the bell woke me up, I found myself in my regular seat in History. Mr. hall was going over notes about the Mid- Evil times. I had a good grade in this class that I decided to work on my doodle again. I thought about Greg while I was doodling. This could just be a trick, but he wouldn't do that. He's not the typical jock who picks on the nerds; he's nice to everyone he talks to, and he never pulled a prank on me before, so why should he start now? But he does hang around with Morgan. That spoiled, selfish brat could have pulled him over to the dark side. But then I remembered what Greg said about Morgan this morning. He was standing up for me and against her. No, this wasn't a trick. He really liked me.

I could barely make it all the way through 5th hour. Since I have the last lunch shift, I have to eat after 5th hour. I still didn't listen to the teacher or Morgan. She's been saying stuff to me al day, but I wasn't listening to her.

Finally, the bell rang for lunch. I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door. But there was a traffic jam, like every other day. I tried to squeeze around people, but either they pushed me away or cut in front of me. So I had to wait behind mountains of hungry teenagers. I hate how some people walk so slow.

After what seemed like hours, I made it to the cafeteria. I looked around, searching for Greg. But I couldn't find him. Bummed, I made my way to my usual table in the back corner.

I was getting my lunch out of my backpack when I heard a voice say, "I thought that you were going to sit with me today?"

I looked up and saw Greg standing there.

"Um - well - I couldn't find you," I stuttered the words out of my mouth.

"Oh, well, I guess I'll sit here today," he said as he was sitting down next to me, "More privacy, anyway."

Definitely not a trick. He wouldn't' want privacy if it was.

'So, are you really okay?" he said in a concerned voice.

"Yes," I said, smiling, "Like I said before, I'm fine. I've had worse." Which was a lie. The worms topped the chart.

"I hope not," he said, "It's just horrible, what they do to you."

He moved closer. I held my breath.

"N-no offense or anything, but why are you saying this?" I asked, gazing into his brilliant blue eyes.

He smiled. "I just don't want to see you hurt. And -" he paused. "And I really like you."

My heart stopped. This has to be a dream. but if it was, I did not want to wake up. I was blushing so bad right now.

"I - um - like you, too," I said, regaining my breath.

His smile got bigger.

"Good, that way it'll be easier to do this."

He was way too close to me for a normal conversation. His head was leaning closer and closer to me.

As his head got closer, my mind was swarming with thoughts.

Oh my God, he's gonna kiss me!

Holy crap, I'm gonna kiss him! I never kissed anyone before. What if I suck? What if after the kiss, he wouldn't like me anymore?

But when his face was just inches from mine, all my thoughts died out. I didn't care what would happen after, all I care about is right now.

I moved my head closer to his.

Right when our lips were about to touch, something hit my back. I turned around to see what it was.

Worms.

The whole cafeteria was laughing now. then I saw who threw them. Morgan was sitting one table down with the bucket of worms, laughing with everyone else.

"Sorry I cut it a little close," she yelled.

"That's okay," a voice next to me called back. I turned around, hoping that someone else had said that. Nope. Greg was the only one there.

"But still, a second longer and you would've had to kiss that thing," she said.

"Better late than never, though," he said to her.

I couldn't breath. No, he didn't do this. he couldn't have. I may have looked fine on the outside, but inside my heart was breaking.

I grabbed my stuff and ran to the nurse, trying to hold back the tears.

I flew into the nurse's office.

"I'm sick. I want to go home," I said, failing to hold back the tears.

Thankfully, no one else was in there besides Nurse Preston. I knew she would let me go home. She's 87 years old and once she hears the word sick, she starts calling your parents.

"What's your name, dear?" she said as she was looking in the files.

"Katelyn Bradley," I said through my sobs.

I sat down on one of the cots while she called my mom. I didn't want to think about what just happened, so I counted the ceiling tiles. I was at 14 when Nurse Preston handed me the phone.

"She wants to talk to you," she said in a gentle voice.

"Thanks," I said softly as I took the phone from her. "Hello?"

"Katelyn Madison Bradley," my mom said in a stern voice, "You better be really sick."

"Mom, please," I begged her while crying, "I just want to go home. I can't stay here."

"But, Kate -" she started.

'Please, Mom. I'll only miss 2 classes. I just need to get out of here," I was practically sobbing right now.

She didn't say anything.

"Mom?" I said, wondering what she was thinking.

"Fine," she finally said, annoyed. "But you're going straight to your room. No T.V."

"Thank you," I said quietly before I hung up the phone.

She came here 20 minutes later. She signed me out and I left from the torture pit.

The car ride home was quiet. my mom still looked mad at me. But I was content. I didn't want to answer any questions about what happened.

When we got home, I went straight upstairs to my room like I was told. my room always relaxed me. It had pale blue walls and a window over-looking our backyard and the woods beyond it. I turned on the radio and laid down on the bed. I cried there for an hour or two, and only stopped because I ran out of tears. I stood up and looked out the window. it was beautiful. the sun was just above the trees, creating the clouds around it to turn pink. And the way the wind blew, the trees looked like they were - well - free. It looked as though they could get up and run away if they wanted to. But the trunk held them back.

But then, I had an idea. What if the trunk let them go? then the tree could leave and go anywhere she wanted to go.

I went downstairs. My mom was in the kitchen making spaghetti, my favorite food. I would have to bring this up as gently as I could.

"Uh, Mom?" I said.

"Yeah, Katie," she said, still looking over the sauce pan.

"Um, I was wondering if I could maybe visit Aunt Sue for a little bit," I said.

"Sure, we can go visit them this weekend," She said. This could take a while.

"No, I mean, could I go alone?" I said.

"Well, okay, but why do you -" she cut herself off. She turned around to face me, giving me this curious look. "Katelyn, you're not thinking about running away, are you?"

At least I didn't have to explain it to her.

"Now, Mom, listen to me," I said quickly, knowing what her reaction is going to be.

"I will not! You are not running away!" she shouted at me.

"I'm not! I just want to go to Aunt Sue's for a semester or two," I said.

"Why? I mean, if you're just wanting to do this because of what happened, then your just being over dramatic. I've told you, it will all -" she said.

"It will not go away!" I shouted, on the verge of tears again. 'You and dad keeps saying that it will, but it won't! It never will! All I'm asking for is just one semester, Mom. Please, let me go."

She looked at me for a long time. And then -

"I'll talk to your dad. And if he and Aunt Sue say yes, and only if they say yes, you can go," she said.

I smiled. I ran to hug her. "Thanks," I said as I was hugging her.

"Your welcome," she said gently. "But honey, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes," I said, letting go, "I'm positive."

I ran up to my room and started packing. Even though there might be a chance that someone will say no, my mom will persuade them to change their mind. I'm finally getting out of this nightmare once and for all.

--

**A/N - i hope you like it so far. I probably won't be able to update it until a week or so, sorry it has to be so long, my teachers are giving me a lot of homework. But please review, i want to know what you guys think of the story so far. **

**Disclaimer: i don't own Twilight or any the characters in it (even though they're not in the story yet).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

My dad said yes and my mom was going to call Aunt Sue tomorrow. But she wouldn't say no, she's too nice to do that. The only bad part of all this was that I would still have to go to school tomorrow.

I woke up that morning, frightened and scared. I put on some old, faded jeans, a soccer shirt from the 6th grade, and a American Eagle hoodie. I ate my pop tart slowly, thinking about how much pain they could cause me on my last day.

I was shaking by 7:00, when we left for school. I said bye to my dad. He wished me luck as I left.

My mom was quiet during the car ride, which I was grateful for; I didn't want her to see me this scared.

And then, at 7:20, my nightmare had begun. My mom pulled up to the sidewalk of the school.

"Now remember the deal, one _full_ day," she told me as I was getting out of the car, "And, Katie, don't worry. Everything's going to be fine."

"Thanks, Mom," I mumbled.

"I'll see you when school's done," she said, starting up the engine.

"Okay, bye," I said quietly.

"I love you, sweetie," she said as she drove off, leaving me to fend for myself.

I walked through the doors into my doom.

Surprisingly, the day wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I got teased and got notes about what happened yesterday, but I'm used to that. I managed to be calm all day by reminding myself that this is the last day I have to spend here. Morgan said the usual, except adding the events for yesterday in. I would normally blush and walk away as fast as I could, but I just strode past her like I couldn't even hear her. The look on her face was priceless.

My mom was just as surprised as Morgan was when I got into the car smiling.

"I'm guessing you had a good day," she said, happy and curious.

"I was okay. People said stuff still, but I'm used to that," I said, turning on the radio.

"Good, then maybe this means that things are going to turn around and you don't have to leave," she said.

My mom just knew how to ruin my day.

"Mom, the only reason I had a good day is because I kept on thinking about how I'm gonna be gone by tomorrow," I said, my good mood wearing off.

"I know, but a whole semester," she said, "Honey, I'd miss you so much."

Oh God, not this again.

"Mom, I already told you, I'll call every night and e-mail you whenever I get the chance," I said.

"But it won't be the same as seeing your face every morning," she whined.

"Fine, if you want, I'll take a picture of myself every morning and send it to you," I said, joking of course.

"Well, now, I could live with that," she said.

I gave her a "you-got-to-be-kidding-me" look. She laughed when she saw me.

"I'm kidding, of course," she said, still laughing, "Oh, honey, you should have seen your face.'

I started laughing with her. I have no idea why I did, though. Usually I hate it when people laughed at me.

"But, Mom, I'll be fine," I said as I calmed down, "And I'm coming back home for Christmas."

"I know, but still -" she said.

"And besides, La Push is only 3 hours away. You and dad can drive up there on the weekends if you want to," I said, wanting to end the argument.

"Okay, I guess I'll deal with it," she said, giving me a sad look, "But now the only question is can you live without seeing this beautiful face every morning."

I was cracking up. My mom joined me about 3 seconds after I started.

We were still laughing when we got home. I went inside and glanced at the clock on the living room wall. 3:30. We would leave around 5:00 so my dad can come with us, too. I didn't have to pack anything since I did all that last night, so I turned on the T.V. and lied down on the couch.

I watched T.V. for an hour or so when I heard the garage door opened. I stood up too fast and got lightheaded, but when that past, I ran upstairs, got my bags, and ran back downstairs before my dad even came through the door.

"Whoa, hold on there, Katie," my dad said, smiling, once he saw me, "Can I at least take a 20 minute break from the road?"

My face fell. "Fine, but only 20 minutes," I said, putting my bags down and lying back down on the couch.

I looked at the clock every minute and each time I was disappointed. But when I saw that there were only 2 minutes left of the 20 minutes, my face lit up.

"Dad! Are you ready now?" I yelled upstairs.

"Jesus, what'd you do? Watch the clock?" I heard him say.

"Pretty much," I said, smiling. "C'mon."

I heard him muttering under his breath but he was coming. I grabbed my bags and put them into the car. When I got back, I saw that my dad was filling his mug with coffee.

I groaned. "Do you really need to do that?" I asked, not wanting to wait for him to finish it.

"I'm the one who had to drive for 3 hours, so yeah, I have to have my coffee," he said.

"Then let me drive," I said, hoping he would.

"Like I'm going to let a teenager who just got her license 3 months ado drive my brand new Suburban," he said, draining his last drops of coffee in his mouth.

"I', not that bad of a driver," I muttered under my breath. "Mom! Are you coming?" She was still upstairs, probably putting her makeup on even though we were going to be in a car.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she said as she was going down the stairs. "Now, you're sure you have everything?"

"Yeah, I'm positive," I said, wanting to leave.

"Okay fine, but if I find something that you forgot, I'm not bringing it up there," she said, grabbing her purse.

"Yeah, okay," my dad said, "Now can we leave? I want to be back home before midnight."

Finally, someone that wants to leave just as badly as I do.

"I'm going," my mom said, walking towards the car. Both me and my dad followed behind her.

I sat in the seat behind the driver's seat. I put in my headphones in my ear and turned up the volume on my iPod so that I wouldn't have to listen to my dad's music on the stereo. He loves classical music. I'll listen to it if it's just a 10 minute car ride, but I wouldn't tolerate 3 hours of it.

That was pretty much all I did all the way to La Push. Except for the last 30 minutes, when my iPod died, forcing me to listen to classical.

I decided to ask my mom about my cousins, hoping that it would help me drown out the music.

"So, Mom, how old are Seth and Leah?" I asked over the music.

Thankfully, my mom turned it down so we could talk.

"I think Seth's now 15 and Leah's 18,"she said.

"And how's Aunt Sue?" I knew that she was a mess after my uncle, Harry, died, but I didn't know if she was better or worse.

"Sue's fine. She's going through a hard time right now, so you try and help her out as much as you can," she told me.

I spent the rest of the drive gazing out the window, trying to decide what hard time my aunt was going through. It could just be that she's been stressed out a lot, but then it could still be about Harry. Hopefully it was just the stress. I'm no good at comforting sad people.

I snapped out of my daydream when my dad stopped the car in front of a white house that had blue shutters.

"Well, we're here," my dad stated the obvious.

I remembered the house from all the Christmas and birthday's we spent over here. They even still have the tree house that me, Seth, and Leah used to play in when we where little.

I opened my door and got out of the car. I even remembered the smell.

When I went around to the trunk to get my bags, I saw my Aunt Sue running out the front door to us. She hugged my mom first, then me, and then my dad.

"It's so good to see you," she said in her sweet voice. "It feels like it's been ages since we last saw each other."

"Sue, it was only 2 weeks ago," my dad corrected her.

"Really?" she looked at him in disbelief. "Oh, well, come inside, it's too cold out here."

I thought that the weather was just fine, but then again, I always loved the cold weather.

My aunt swung the front door open with a loud creak.

"Seth!" she called, "Get down here and greet Katelyn!" she was the only person who still called me by my full name.

"Coming," I heard in a grumpy voice. Even if I didn't hear him say anything, I knew he was coming. It sounded as though a stampede of elephants was coming down the stairs.

A year ago, I wouldn't even recognize the guy that stood at the bottom of the stairs. The boy I knew a year ago still had baby fat on his face, was my height, and scrawny. this guy that now stood in front of me was six foot, muscular, and had his black hair down to his shoulders.

"Hey, Katie," Seth said in his now deep voice.

"Hey, Seth," I said, "Did you grow anymore?"

He grinned. "Only an inch this time," he said.

I laughed, I always like Seth. Leah, on the other hand, was just irritating and annoying. She didn't always used to be like that, though; a couple years ago, she was fun and exciting. The only reason she change was because she got her heart broken. That's the thing with my family; we were cursed when we found love. Leah, got dumped by the man and he ran off with her cousin (from her dad's side, no relation to me); my aunt had Harry, who died too young; then me, who got dumped and publicly humiliated by her first crush. I'm just surprised that my parents are still together; looks like my mom's the lucky one, the curse skipped her.

"Leah's gone down to the beach, but she'll be back in an hour or so," my aunt said, taking my bags from my hands. "Here, Seth, go and show Katie her room." She handed the bags to him.

"Aw, Mom, she already knows where the room is," Seth whined.

"Go and show it to her," she said while giving him the death stare.

"Okay, fine. C'mon," he said, taking the bags.

I followed him upstairs to the third room to the left. It was the room I always stayed in when I stayed here.

"You know, I could get used to this," I said, teasing Seth, "You always carrying my stuff.'

"Ha ha, well you might want to remember this moment because I'm not doing it again," he said, smiling, "I don't care how many death stares I get from my mom."

"Aw, what's wrong? The bags too heavy for you?" I said in a baby voice.

"Like that could happen. I can bench over 300 now," he said, showing off, "I just have enough stuff I have to do that I don't have enough time to fulfill your every command."

"Well, we'll see about that," I said as I turned into a small bedroom. It had pale yellow walls with a bold, white strip going around in the middle of it. The bed frame was made of metal and formed shapes on the headboard. There was a nightstand next to it with a clock on top of it that read 8:05 p.m. There was also a desk and a dresser on the side of the walls. But I didn't recognize the desk. It hadn't been there when I last visited. And, to my surprise, it had a computer on it.

Seth, recognizing what I was staring at, explained why it was there.

"My mom went a little overboard went she found out that you were staying with us,'' he said.

"So she got me a computer?" I said, shocked.

"Not exactly," he said, "One of my friends had an old computer that he was going to throw out anyway, so he gave it to us."

"Wow, so he just gave away a computer?" I said, wondering why anyone would do that, "Wait, it doesn't have any problems with it, does it?"

"Nope, it's problem-free," Seth said, grinning.

"Then why's he give it away?" I asked curiously.

"Well, you see, Embry already graduated and his job doesn't require a computer, so he thought he could try and sell it," he said, and then laughed, "But no one would buy a computer that looks like it's from the 80's."

I looked at the computer again. I could see why people would pick a newer one over the 80's one. It looked so huge and bulky. But then again, it was still a computer.

I sighed. "Well, tell him thanks for me," I said, wanting the person who gave me free internet access without having to bug anyone should know what he did.

"You can tell him yourself if you want to," Seth said, "We're having a bonfire later tonight and Embry's gonna be there."

I winced. Party's were never my favorite thing to go to.

"I don't know, Seth," I said slowly, " I mean, it sounds like fun, but -"

"Then come with me," he interrupted. 'What else are you going to do? Unpack?"

"Uh, yeah," I said softly.

"C'mon, just one time and then I won't ask you to come ever again," he pleaded with me.

I gave in. "Okay, fine," I said furiously, "I'll go, I'll go. Just stop begging, you look like a dog."

Seth laughed, but it was different. It sounded as though he was trying to fake it or something. Whatever he was trying to do, he didn't do a good enough job to fool me with it.

"It starts at 9:00, so be ready by then," he said, leaving me to unpack my things.

"Don't worry. I'll be ready," I said in a grumpy voice.

Seth stopped in my threshold.

"And will you be happy?" he asked.

I scowled at him, but he wasn't going to leave his spot unless he was content.

"Fine," I said, faking a smile, "I'm happy. Why would I be smiling if I wasn't?"

He laughed.

"You're crazy sometimes, Katie," he said as he left.

I smiled. Seth never means what he says about me, unlike people back home.

I opened up my bag and started putting my clothes away. I was halfway through when my mom called my name.

"Katie, we're leaving!" she yelled from downstairs.

I left my room and went downstairs where my mom and dad were by the front door.

"Bye, Mom. bye, Dad," I said as I hugged them both.

"I'll miss you so much," my mom said, tearing up.

"I'll miss you, too, Mom," I said, "And I'll call you every day."

"You better," she said, "Or I'm calling the police and report you as a missing person."

You probably thought that she was just joking about that, but she wasn't. I remember one time, when I was in the 5th grade and still had friends, I got off at one of my friend's bus stop instead of mine without telling her. The police came by to her house and took me back to my mom 10 minutes later.

"Be safe, Katie," my dad told me.

"Don't' worry, I will be," I said.

"Oh, and try to make some new friends," my mom said as she was going out the door.

"I'll try," I said, wanting her just to say bye and leave already. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay, well then, I guess we're going," my mom said, clearly not wanting to leave.

"Okay, bye," I said as I hugged her again.

"And remember," she said as she and my dad were walking to the car, "only one semester. After that, you're coming back home."

"Yeah, I got it," I said, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, getting into the car.

She was waving until the car couldn't be seen anymore.

"So, now it's just you, me, and Seth," my aunt said. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, Katie and I were going up to the bonfire," Seth said.

My aunt's face fell.

"Oh, Seth, I don't' know if that's a good idea," she said with a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry, Mom," he said, "I'll tell her everything. She is family after all."

I had no idea what they were talking about. Tell me everything about what? And what did being cousins have to do with it?

"I'm going to go upstairs and finish packing," I said.

"Okay," Seth said, "But you only have 10 minutes left."

"Don't worry. I won't take long," I said as I was walking up the stairs.

I went into my room and fell onto the bed. I was on my own right now. No mom, no dad. I still had an aunt, of course, but Aunt Sue really didn't discipline me much, even when my parents weren't around.

I looked at the clock. Only 5 minutes left. I groaned. I couldn't unpack in 5 minutes. I would just have to do it tomorrow.

I got up and went downstairs to met Seth. He was watching the television screen like his eyes were glued to it. But when he heard me coming down the stairs, he broke out of hi gaze.

"You ready?" he said.

"Yep," I said, hopping down the last 2 steps. "Hey, I don't need to eat anything before I go, right?"

He chuckled. 'Don't worry. There will be _a lot_ of food," he said, smiling.

And with that, we were off to my first La Push bonfire.

--

**A/N - Thanks for reading it. i hope you liked it so far, and if you did, please review. I want to know if you think that i should do the next chapter in Embry's POV or Katie's POV. **

**Disclaimer : I do not and will never own Twilight.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N - I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long to update. I barely have any free time since school started, but i'll try and get the others out sooner than this one. Thanks to all that have reviewed this story so far. You guys are the best. I hope that i get a little more reviews this time, for all those who have read it but haven't reviewed it. But i hope you like this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Twilight or any of it's characters.**

**Chapter 3**

"So what were you going to tell me?" I asked Seth as I was driving my aunt's car to the party.

"Oh, you'll find that that out tonight," Seth said. "But I might want to warn you that it might come as a shock to you."

"What is?" I asked, hoping I could get some information from him.

"Oh no, I'm not telling you anything," he said, "You're going to have to wait. Besides, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," I said, knowing that he wouldn't tell me anything, but deciding to try anyway.

"Take a right here," Seth said a little too late. I turned the wheel to the right as fast as I could, trying to make the turn onto a dirt road. It was a good thing that there were no cars around, or else I would have hit them.

"Tell me sooner next time," I said, my heart beating faster.

"Sorry," he said innocently. "Anyways, we're here."

I pulled up into a huge clearing next to the beach. I parked next to the only two other cars that were there. We got out of the car and walked towards the huge bonfire that was already lit. Around it were huge, shirtless boys – no, men – that looked just like…Seth.

My mouth was probably hanging wide open because when Seth looked at me, he started cracking up.

"Told you it would come as a shock to you," he said, grinning.

"So your secret is that you have 7 clones?" I asked in disbelief.

He chuckled. "No, that's just an extra thing that happens when -" he started to say, but then stopped suddenly. He looked like he was gagging on something, but then he recovered from it just seconds later.

"You okay?" I asked, concerned about my cousin.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry," he said as he started walking in front of me towards his clones.

As we walked closer, I saw that there were 2 other people there besides the clones. One woman and one teenage girl. I felt uncomfortable because everyone there was tanned and had dark hair. I, on the other hand, am fair-skinned with light brown hair and freckles sprinkled all over my face.

"Finally," one of the guys said when he saw me and Seth. He turned to face the woman. "Can we eat now since the idiot finally decided to show up?"

"No, we still have to wait for Leah," she said as she was bending over to set the small table with food and utensils.

"Leah's gonna be late," Seth told them. "She wanted some time on her own and since we're all here….she thought that this would be the best time for it."

Everyone had a look of symphony on their faces. Everyone except the guy who asked about the food. He had a look of joy on his face and sprang up from his spot on the ground and went to get some food.

"Save some for Leah, Paul," the woman said while she was turning around to face Seth and me, "Who's this Seth?"

I started to gasp, but then shut my mouth quickly before any sound could escape from it. The whole part on the woman's right side of her face was covered by three vivid red lines running down from her hair to her chin. I had a million questions running through my head that I wanted to ask Seth just then. But I thought that it would be best if I asked him somewhere more private. I didn't want her to overhear us and start crying because of it. Unlike my classmates back home, I actually care if I hurt someone's feelings.

"This is Katie," Seth said to her, ignoring the red scars. Clearly, he knew her and didn't bother giving me any warning of any kind to tell me about this. "My cousin I told you about who was coming to stay with us for a while."

"It's nice to meet you, Katie. I'm Emily," she said as she was shaking my hand. Her name should be easy to remember, but the others were going to be difficult. As Seth introduced me to them, I tried to pick out different features about them that I could remember, but I couldn't find anything. They were all massive and bulky. They all had the same haircut and hair color, except for one. Jacob, I think, had his hair grown longer than anyone else's, so I should be able to tell him apart. But the rest – Sam, Jared, Paul, Embry, Collin, and Brady – I'll have to guess at until I can remember them.

Seth was right about one thing, though, there was a lot of food. There were about 100 hotdogs, 12 bags of chips, and 6 liters of soda.

"Are we going to eat all of this tonight?" I asked Seth as I was getting myself a hotdog.

"There will be about one or tow extra, but, yeah, we're going eat all of this," Seth said as he reached out to get himself his 6th hotdog.

"Hey, Seth," one of the guys called him. I'm guessing he was Sam because he was sitting right beside Emily, which Seth told me that they were together. About the only thing that he did tell me. "I need to talk to you for a minute."

Either Seth didn't like Sam or he didn't want to talk to him because his face looked like he was about to sign up for war or something. But, war or no war, he stood up and followed Sam into the forest to talk.

Feeling abandoned, I walked over to the only other girl here.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" I asked politely. I knew that she would have no idea about what happened in my old school, but I was still afraid of being rejected and humiliated.

"No, not at all," she said. I exhaled as I sat down next to her. "I'm Kim, by the way, Jared's girlfriend."

"Jared?" I asked, stumped by which one that was.

She smiled. "The one who's trying to chug the soda bottle," she said as she pointed to him. Sure enough, when I looked over there, there was a guy half way through a bottle and still drinking it. Actually, I saw that everyone of the muscular guys where stuffing their face or chugging a bottle. But I noticed that someone was missing. I didn't know who, but it felt like it was less crowed in a way. I looked around, counting everyone there. There were 6 people there, not including Sam and Seth. I finally realized that the guy with the shaggy hair, Jacob, was the one that was missing.

"Where did Jacob go?" I asked curiously, looking around to see if I missed him.

"Oh, he had to go somewhere. He never actually stays here for a long time. He just eats his food and leaves. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up anymore," Kim said. But I only heard half of it. When I was looking around, I saw someone who was staring back. He was sitting directly across from me with his food untouched. He wasn't paying attention to any conversation by him. All he did was stare at me with his huge brown eyes. And I stared back with my face turning redder, unable to break my gaze from his perfect face.

"Kate, you okay?" I heard someone say. I came back to my surroundings.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I said, slowly turning away from the enchanting man and to Kim. "Who's that? Sitting across from us?"

Kim turned her head and gasped.

"What?" I said, frantically, "What is it?"

Everyone turned around to face us. Jared was by her side in just seconds after she gasped.

"What happened?" he asked her in his husky voice. "Are you hurt?"

"No, no, I'm fine," she said, trying to compose her face.

"Are you sure?" he asked. I thought that he was being a little too overprotective about this, but it was also nice. I could tell that he really did care if anything happened to her, even if it was a hangnail. Someone like that could not be found at my old school.

"Jared, I'm fine," she said calmly, "Honestly. Go back to eating."

He hesitated, not wanting to leave her.

"Go," she said with a smile, "I need to talk to Katie."

He looked at her and then turned around when he was sure that she was fine.

Kim turned back to me. "To answer your question, Katie, the guy who won't stop staring at you is Embry Call."

As she said this, I could feel Embry's gaze burning into the back of my head and turned around to face him again. I think that even through all the drama that had happened a minute ago, he still didn't look away from me. So I stared back at him, losing my thoughts in those remarkable eyes.

**Embry's POV**

I couldn't look away from her. She was just so…breathtaking. How her hair gently blew in the wind. How her pale blue eyes stood out against her flawless skin. Even how her cheeks filled with color when she caught my gaze made me want to be with her even more. I couldn't look away. She's my hope and life now.

I could hardly speak when Seth introduced me to her. But I managed to weakly say hello when she got to me. Lucky for me, no one knew what had happened then, even when almost half of them imprinted themselves. They can be so oblivious to the obvious sometimes. I'm glad that they are, though. If they found out, they'd give me hell. Especially Paul. If only Kim kept her mouth shut when she saw me, everything would be fine.

Jared was staring at me curiously when he was going back to his spot after he made sure that Kim was okay. He was just now starting to put the pieces together.

"Embry, you didn't…?" he said slowly and softly. I pulled out of my gaze to look at him.

"He did!" Paul said excitedly. He sounded like a little girl getting a new doll. "Sam! Hey, Sam!" he called out into the woods.

Two massive figures came walking out of the trees, one slightly bigger than the other. Both wore the face of anger and frustration. Paul ran over to Sam, not wanting to wait for him to walk over here. He also didn't notice the anger in Sam's face, too.

"Guess what happened to Embry?" he asked. I wanted to punch him, hit him, do anything to him that causes him pain. The only thing that stopped me was when I thought about how Paul might phase and hurt her.

"Whatever it is can it wait?" said Sam in a frustrated voice. "I have to deal with something right now."

"Dude, Embry just im-" Paul started.

"Paul! Give it a rest!" Sam shouted back furiously. Everyone looked at him, including Kim and Kate, stunned by what he said or really, how he said it. Sam never got _that_ angry at us before, even when we did do something completely stupid. We didn't even know what we did this time. I stood up and ran over to him, trying to calm him down.

"Relax, Sam. Just get a grip," I said quickly. He was shaking out of control now. "Think of Emily. Think of Kate. And Kim." But he seemed to be under control when I mention Emily.

He put his hands on his temple like he was trying to control a bad headache. He was still shaking, but less and less every second. Emily was getting up and starting to walk over here. Sam didn't miss that.

"No! Emily, stay where you are!" he said in a scared voice. Emily hesitated, but stayed where she was with a worried face sketched on her scarred face.

I turned around to see if Kate was okay. Her eyes were popped open a little bit and her mouth was open, but otherwise, she was unharmed. Her face looked like she was terrified and worried at the same time. I wanted to go over to her. I wanted to assure her that everything was fine. That she was safe. That I would never let anything happen to her. But before I could even take a step towards her, Sam pulled me back.

"Wait, Embry," he said. He recovered from his "headache" in time to see who I was staring at. Unlike the rest of the guys, he actually knew what had happen immediately. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

It really wasn't a question. He would talk to me even if he had to force me to go with him. I thought it would be for the best if I could still leave with some dignity rather then throwing a fit in front of her. Besides, most of them already knew anyways.

"Sure," I muttered.

He led the way into the forest, waiting a little longer for me as I took one last look at Kate before following him.

"Phase," he told me once we were out of sight. I did it without a compliant, knowing why he didn't want to talk in our human form. He didn't want me to lie to him (although I have no idea why he would think that I would lie to him) and the best way to do that is in wolf form. I guess it also helps if we get pissed off and start yelling at each other, that way no one will be able to hear us. He waited until I fully phased before he phased himself.

"Okay, now, what's…going…on…" he said as he spaced off. He listened to what had happened inside my head for a minute before he spoke.

_Embry_, he thought as he chuckled inside his head.

_What? What is so funny?_ I thought furiously.

_Nothing. It's just that I'm starting to wonder if this legend is even suppose to rare or not. What are you, the fifth one that's done it? _

I relaxed, wondering why I got so mad in the first place; Sam wouldn't tease me about this, not when his situation was so much worse than this one.

_Do you need me anymore? I want to get back there. _I thought as I was longing to see Kate's sweet face again.

_No, go ahead. Just tell Emily that I'll see her when I get back home in a couple of hours._

_Where're you going?_

_I'm going to give Jacob an early break from patrol. He looks like he needs it._

_Wait, when did he leave?_ I was trying to remember anything back at the bonfire except Kate's face. Nothing came to me.

He laughed in his head.

_Of course _you_ wouldn't have noticed. He left about half an hour ago. _

_Oh…okay, well, I'm going to go back._

_Okay, go back to your 'soul mate' _

Even in his head I could hear the sarcastic sound in his voice. But I laughed; Sam was just kidding, or he better be. If he was seriously making fun of me, I would have attacked him right then and there.

_Oh, Embry, wait. Don't tell Kate about us just yet. I don't want her to get freak out on her first night in La Push._

_Like I do?_

_Just go_ he thought while he was laughing.

I took a deep breath and tried to control my mind while I phased back. Sam was heading in the opposite direction of the bonfire when I started walking towards it. When I got back into the clearing, everyone was silent and staring at me, including Kate, with her piercing blue eyes. I went back to my spot, lightheaded from walking all the distance with Kate's eyes on me, picked up my food, suddenly starving. Once I sat down, everyone went back to what they were doing before, Kate taking a little longer to look away. The only one who didn't look away was Seth. He walked over to me and sat down right next to the spot where I was sitting.

"So, you really did…you know," he said quietly, not wanting to say the word because whether he thought that it was weird or in case we were being overheard, I don't know.

"What do you think, Seth?" I said, getting tired of everyone talking about this. Yeah, I'm imprinted, get used to it.

"That's great!" Seth said excitedly, "Now I can tell her everything." He got up and started walking towards Kate and Kim.

"Wait a minute," I said as I pulled him back by his shirt, "Sam told me not to tell her tonight."

"Didn't tell me that," he said, trying to break my grip. But since Seth was one of the weakest one in our pack, he gave up after a minute or two. He sat down next to me, angry and annoyed.

I smiled. "Think about it. Do you really want to tell her this when she just arrived here? And besides, what are you going to say? 'Hey, just thought I'd let you know that I'm a werewolf and one of my friends is your soul mate.' She'd have a heart attack before you even finish."

"I wouldn't say it like that. I would -" Seth started to protest.

"Forget it. Sam gave us orders," I told him.

"Fine, then you go talk to her," Seth said, disappointed.

"Didn't I just say that I can't tell her?" I said, questioning his intelligence.

"I know. But you don't have to talk to her about _that_," Seth said, "Just talk to her about normal stuff. The more you talk to her, the more she'll believe us when we tell her."

Damn it, he was right. It's not like I didn't want to talk to her, it's just that I didn't want to say anything stupid and look like an idiot. And I always say something stupid around girls. Especially the hot ones.

"I don't know, Seth. Maybe tomorrow, if I see her -" I said, trying to worm my way out of this.

"Oh, c'mon, you're not telling me that you're afraid, are you?" Seth said with a grin. "Just go and talk to her or I'll tell Paul that you're too afraid to."

I scowled at him, but stood up. There's no way that I'm going to let Paul know how I feel right now. He gave Jared hell when he admitted that he was nervous around Kim.

I hesitated when I was walking towards her, not knowing if I had enough courage to talk to her. Behind me, Seth was encouraging and threatening me all at once and with all of that, I started walking towards my soul mate. By the time that I was halfway there, she looked up and noticed me. I almost melted right there when her blue eyes met my muddy brown ones. I'm surprised that I made it all the way to her without tripping or falling down.

I was standing a few feet away from her, my palms all sweaty. She was watching me out of curiosity and nervousness. Besides her, Kim was almost cracking up, but trying her best to hold it in.

"Um, hi," I said in a cracked voice, "Can I sit here?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, i was hoping that this chapter would get out sooner than this, but, obviously, that didn't happen. I'm actually having more free time now that softball's over, so maybe, hopefully, the next chapter will be out in the next week. Anyways, i hope you like this chapter and forget to review, they are so helpful to me.**

**Chapter 4**

"S- sure," I stuttered. I said this so quietly that I thought that he didn't hear me, but he sat down next to me on the other side where Kim was sitting.

"I'm going to see if Jared – ah – needs anything," Kim said. If she was trying to not make it obvious what she was doing, she failed at it. I glowered at her while she stood up to walk away. My hair covered my face so that Embry couldn't see, but Kim had a clear view of it. She just smiled and turned away, walking towards Jared. I bit my lip; my head was still turned so that Embry couldn't see it. But I was so shocked that I couldn't turn around to face him. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to say? I just learned his name a few minutes ago and now here he is, sitting next to expecting for us to make small talk like we were friends or something. I stink at small talk, usually I just bring up school (but I can't use that since I haven't gone to school here yet) or just stutter until they finally decide to talk. And it doesn't make it any easier that he's half naked and totally hot. But he would think that I was being rude if I didn't turn to face him (which I don't know why his opinion of me was so important), so, against my better judgment, I turned to face that gorgeous face.

Holy crap! The only thing that stopped me from saying that aloud was the embarrassment that could come shortly after. But his face! He wasn't looking at me awkwardly like any other person would do in this situation; instead, he was staring at me as if me…admired me.

My expression must have changed because he broke his gaze, looked down at his feet, and muttered, "Sorry."

His voice was so soft and…perfect. Even though I only heard him say one word, I thought that it was the most beautiful sound that I've ever heard.

"It's fine," I muttered back. After that, there was an awkward silence. I looked at the fire, trying not to look too nervous or eager. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Embry staring at me again, hesitating with something. Probably deciding what to say like me. I smiled a little bit. It sort of helped with my nerves knowing that he was just as nervous as I was. But I couldn't help wondering why he would need to be nervous. As far as he knows, I'm just Seth's plain, ordinary cousin who left her home because she was too chicken to stay there. He probably had a girlfriend, when he has a face like that, and probably much more better looking than me. I bet all the girls on the reservation are better looking than me, with long, dark hair, tanned, flawless skin, and skinny but with the right amount of muscles, too. Yeah, that was it. Seth just sent him over here because my mom told him to help me make friends.

He finally broke the silence. "So, uh, how do you like here in La Push?" he asked, his voice cracking while he said it. Apparently, he was slightly embarrassed by that because his tanned face turned a shade redder.

I smiled, but didn't laugh. I wouldn't have done something stupider than that if I talked first.

"It's not the perfect place, but I like it," I said, "It's better than Lexington."

"Lexington must have been really bad if you prefer La Push over it," he said.

"You have no idea," I said as I turned back to look at the fire. Of course, Embry didn't look away. I was kind of getting used to it by now. This time, he had a look of pain and sadness on his face as if he felt sorry for me, which only confused me more. If he only came over here to please Seth, why'd he keep staring at me like he actually liked me? It just didn't add up in my head.

"Why are - ?" I started to say right as he started to say, "Katie, I -" We both went a deep red.

"You go first," he said politely.

"I was just wondering why you're sitting with me?" I said. A pain shot through my body. Saying it in my head, nothing came up, but when I said it aloud, de javu struck me hard. Greg Binds. Lunch. Worms. No, no, this can't be happening again. For crying at loud, he doesn't even know me! He can't have known what happened to me just days ago!

He smiled at me, but in my head, we weren't outside next to a bonfire, we were sitting at an old lunch table in a large, outdated cafeteria and Embry had black hair and blue eyes.

"I just wanted to meet you," he said as he looked at me, "And hopefully, get to know you better."

No, no, no! I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to leave; I was not just going to let this happen again. "I – I'm sorry," I said as I was standing up, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I have to go."

He didn't protest, but he wasn't going to let me leave without saying something first. "Will I see you again?" he asked as he, too, stood up. He towered over me, just like Greg Binds.

"I don't know, maybe," I said, wanting to just run to the car and drive off.

"Then met me back here tomorrow at 1:00. If you don't want to come, just tell Seth and I'll know," he said.

"Okay, I'll think about it," I said. And with that, I turned away, without saying goodbye or even waiting for Seth to come, walking as fast as I could without it looking like I was trying to get away, to my aunt's car. I quickly got to the keys out of my pocket and started the engine. I put it in reverse and drove off. But when I was pulling out, Embry was still there, standing in the exact same spot, staring at me.

By the time I was on the highway, I had tears streaming down my face. I pulled over to the shoulder and waited for them to stop so that I could actually see. It took a couple of minutes for them to stop all the way. I looked in the mirror to try and clean my face up just in case someone drove by and saw me. Oh God, I look like crap. My eyes were all puffy and red and my face was all wet from the tears. When I thought I looked decent enough, I put the car back into drive and pulled away from the shoulder.

It took me less than a minute to realize that I had no idea where I was going. Leaving Seth back at the clearing was probably a stupid thing to do when I didn't know any roads in La Push. I recognized some of the scenery from the drive to the bonfire, but got lost at a 4-way stop light. And just then, as if on cue, it started to sprinkle, which isn't uncommon in La Push, but added more spookiness to my situation right now.

I drove through the rain for 5 minutes with my wipers going their full speed when I decided to go to someone's house and ask if I could use their phone for a minute. But, of course, there's nothing but wilderness out here and took me another 5 minutes to find a house. It was small and it needed new siding, but it also looked warm and inviting. I parked the car in their driveway and walked slowly towards the front door, deciding what was the best thing to say without it sounding like I was a stalker. I knocked on the door and waited for someone. While I waited, I looked around at their front porch. It was cute; it had porch swing hanging from the roof and had brightly colored flowers in pots around it. But the sides needed to be done badly. It looked like something clawed at it, peeling away the yellow paint. Maybe they had a dog.

I heard footsteps coming from the inside of the house and went back at the front door. A woman in her forties answered the door. She, like everyone else, had dark hair and tan skin. But there was something familiar about her; it was as if I'd seen her before.

"Yes?" she said. Her voice was sweet, but was filled with stress.

"Um, hi, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but do you mind if I use your phone for a minute; I have to call my family for directions," I said as nicely as I could while making my face look as innocent as possible.

"Um," she said as she looked behind her and then back to me, "Sure, come on in."

She opened the door wider so that I could enter her house. "Thanks," I said when I went inside. It looked like I was in the living room; it had a small brown sofa with a coffee table to match it and a small T.V. on a tiny T.V. stand. There were hundreds of pieces of paper covering the table and the floor around it.

"No problem. The phone is just through those doors, beside the cupboard," she explained, pointing to the door right across from us. I walked towards it while saying thanks again and trying to avoid the clutter on the ground. I managed to make it to the door without tripping when I looked to my right and saw a dark figure walking towards me in the hallway. Fear suddenly rushed through me, but then was replaced with shock when I recognized who it was. I gasped and took a step back. Embry Call was walking towards me.

**Embry's POV**

She's in my house. The girl I love is standing in my living room with my mom. I watched her car pull up into our driveway from my bedroom window and heard her fists knock softly on the door. Oh God, why didn't I think about cleaning the room up? And the mess just gets worse in the kitchen.

I heard the door opening and my mom talking. Then I heard her voice, even though I couldn't understand what she was saying, I loved it from the first word she said to me. I wished that she would just talk forever; I don't even care what she says just as long as she talks. I heard the door close and Kate say something to my mom. My mom said something back, but I caught the words "phone" and "cupboard".

I opened my door and went into the hallway. I could see her walking towards the kitchen door, looking down trying not to step on the mess. She got to the door and looked up at me. At first, her expression didn't show any recognition at all. But as I walked towards her, her face slowly changed to shocked, scared, and I think a little bit happy, too.

"Embry," my mom said, knowing how to break to mood, "go back to your room."

"But, Mom," I said, not looking away from Katie, "this is Katie, Seth and Leah's cousin."

"I don't care," she said in a stern voice, "you're still grounded, so go back to your room."

"But she's lost," I said, just guessing, "Can I at least drive her back to Seth's house to make sure she gets there alright?"

She considered it for a moment. I've snuck out so many times that I was afraid she wouldn't let me go. But then, with her being the generous person that she is, she said, "Fine, but you have only 20 minutes to get back here."

"No problem," I said while my happiness rushed through me. I looked down at Kate with a huge smile on my face. Her face didn't exactly match mine. Actually, it was no where near mine. She looked at my questioningly; she must have caught something I said that I or my mom didn't quite get. I went through my head and remembered what I'd just said. Katie…lost…drive…20 minutes…nope, I couldn't think of anything that was wrong.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, pushing aside her confused face. Once I asked her, though, she quickly lost the confused look and replaced it with her normal, beautiful one.

"Oh, yeah, I'm ready," she said. I pushed open the door for her and let her walk ahead (one, it's nice to let the girls go first and two, I didn't want to let her out of my sight) and I followed shortly behind her. As I passed my mom, she said, "Remember, Embry, 20 minutes."

"I know," I said as I walked out the door and toward Kate's car. I feel sorry for my mom for not telling her everything. Sam said that not telling her would be best even if the other guys say other wise, but just seeing her getting all worried and freaked out because I snuck out again and again makes me wish that I could tell her so that I could relieve her from all the stress. Of course, if I told her, she'd probably be even more freaked out, which is probably why Sam didn't want me to tell her, for her own sake.

Katie walked towards the driver's side of the car. I grabbed her gently by the arm to stop her.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked her when she turned around to face me, her face deep red.

"To the car," she said slowly and curiously.

"Yeah, okay," I told her, "but you're not driving."

"What?" she said and looked at me if I was joking. "And why not? It's my car and I'm going to drive it."

"First off, it's not your car," I said, smiling, "and second off, I know where I'm going, so it'd be easier for me to get there." I snatched the keys that she was holding in her hand and opened the driver's seat door. Kate didn't protest, but she didn't go quietly to the passenger side either. I caught her say "crazy" and "idiot". I don't know why, but I liked her saying that; I mean, I'd prefer her call me something a little nicer, but at least she thought of me as something in her life. When she was finally in the front seat and buckled up, I started up the engine and drove back onto the highway. We both were silent, having no idea what to talk about. But I wanted to hear her voice again.

"You didn't make too big of a mistake. You just took a left when you should've token a right," I said, watching the road.

"Oh" was all she said. I was hoping that since I talk first, she'd feel more comfortable and start talking. But apparently, that didn't happen, since we both sat in silence for another 5 minutes. But then, she finally spoke.

"Embry, can I ask you something?" she said, but I didn't like the tone at which she said it. She was curious. And being curious around _us_ isn't a good thing when you don't know what we are. But I couldn't help resisting hearing what she wanted to know.

"Besides that, sure," I said, taking my eyes off the road for a moment to look at her.

She hesitated asking the question, but managed to coax it out.

"How'd you know I was lost?" she asked. I smiled; it had nothing to do with werewolves.

"I guessed," I admitted, "It wasn't very hard of a guess, though. Not very many people come here, you see."

"But there could be a million other reasons why I went there," she said, wanting to know the full story.

"Well, I knew you weren't there to see me because if you told that to my mom, she wouldn't have let you in. And also, because you looked so shocked to see me at my own house. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most people expect someone to be at their home if their going to see them."

She paused and looked at me for a moment, amazed, before she said, "So do you always have that good of a judgment on people?"

"Not really," I confessed, "Not for people that I just met. If it was one of the guys, then, yeah, I would know. But if it's just strangers, I'm usually perplexed trying to figure out what they're thinking of. Except for you; when you walked into my house, I knew immediately why you were there, with no doubts in my head."

She laughed suddenly; her laugh was almost as perfect as her voice.

"So, are you saying that I'm the type of person who gets lost all the time?" she asked, still laughing and smiling.

I smiled, too (I heard a sharp intake of breath when I did) and reached out to grab her hand (with the other on the steering wheel) and squeezed her hand gently. I tore my eyes from the road again, not being able to resist what her reaction was. She was still smiling, but her face was crimson red. I wanted to tell her how I really felt so bad right then. I wanted her to know how important she was to me. So I tried to come up with the best alternative that I could think of without freaking her out or breaking the rules.

"You know, Katie, you're different from the other girls around here," I said. Her face fell. Ah, shit, wrong words to say. Different didn't even come close to half of what I think about her.

"Yeah, different," she said as she looked out the front window.

"No, no. You're different in a good way. You're – you're – unique," I said when I found the right word.

"But always different," she muttered. She looked so sad. I wish I could rewind time so I could go back to a few minutes ago when we were laughing. Before I said the stupid, idiotic words.

"And I'm glad you are," I said. Her face went a deep red and she looked at me with her sad, blue eyes.

"Thanks," she said, "for everything."

"It's no problem," I said, "Anyways, you don't know how bad I wanted to do it."

She gave me a quick, small smile before turning away to look out the window. The rest of the drive, which was only about 5 minutes, was like this. I would occasionally look at every few seconds just to see her, but didn't say anything, in case I say something wrong…again. I pulled into Seth's driveway and put the car in park.

"Hold on, how are you getting back home?" she asked. I could see the problem; if I took the car, no one would be able to leave the house (well, except for Seth and Leah; they can just run). But if I left the car, I'd have to walk all 10 miles home, which isn't a big deal for me, but it probably wouldn't be a good thing for my human charade to walk 10 miles back home at night.

"Um, I'll just walk," I said, deciding that that option would be best seeing how Kate would know sooner or later that I wasn't all human.

"Are you crazy?" she said, worried, "It's like a 20 minute walk back!"

"I'll be fine," I said, getting out of the car. She opened her door and got out, too.

"But what about your mom?" she asked, "She only gave you 20 minutes and you all ready used up about 10 of them. Are you telling me that you'll walk 10 miles in 10 minutes?"

I laughed. "Don't worry about me. My mom is never too strict on the time limit. And, if for some reason, she is, than, I'll just say that we had some car trouble. She doesn't dig too deep if I give her a good enough excuse."

She frowned. "Fine, but I still don't like it."

"I'll be fine," I said again, "I'll see you around. Hopefully tomorrow, if you've decided to go."

"Still undecided," she said, my hopes drowning, "but I will see you around eventually." She turned around and headed towards the house. But I didn't want her to leave. Not without saying goodbye, and one that she'll actually remember by tomorrow. I wasn't going to kiss her; too shy her that right now, but I wanted to do _something_.

"Wait," I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a huge hug. It might not be like a kiss, but at least I get to hold her. She felt so soft and so breakable. I didn't want to squeeze too tight, afraid of hurting her, but I wanted her close to me.

Though every bone in my body didn't want to let go, I pulled away after about a minute or two. I didn't want her to die of a heat stroke just after I met her. I looked down and saw the best thing I could ever see. She looked happy, without even a trace of sadness.

"Yes," she whispered, "Yeah, I'll go tomorrow."

My smile and my hopes grew about 2 times bigger right then. "Great. That's just – I mean, it's so – you know, it's -"

"How about I met you at your house at 1:00?" she asked, smiling from my stuttering.

"Yeah, that's perfect," I said, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks.

"Okay," she said, walking away, "I'll see you then."

"Bye," I said, watching her every step until she was safely inside the house. I didn't want to leave her. By herself. Without protection. I mean what, there're hundreds of robberies that happen every week, and then you got the crazy lunatics coming in your house with a gun for no reason at all and start shooting. Then there's all the trouble that comes along with being the imprint of a werewolf (even though she doesn't know it yet). There's no way I was going to leave her. I'm staying here, with her, forever.


End file.
